Tag: Emotional

Commonplace activities morph into lifetime memories when experienced alongside the wonder of a child.

I have been called a lot of names through the years. My forever favorite is “dad” or any variation thereof. Stacey and I have 3 wonderful children. I have loved every phase of their lives. As of late, my role has changed from caregiver to counselor. They are magnificent humans seeking to live life well. I am so proud of who they have become.

I came across a quote today. It comes at a time in life when I have trouble looking to the future with faith. All my past experiences lead me to understand that God is faithful in all things and that He desires to prosper me and my family to His glory. This review of personal history should provide ultimate confidence in the steps I am taking. However, I find myself lying sleepless with fear of future failure.

When the past becomes more glorious than the future, we’ve got a problem.

As often occurs, I read this book at the request of a friend I admire who would like to discuss it. This particular individual touts the diary of a catholic priest’s 7 month monastic sabbatical as her favorite book of all time. While I am not quite so captured, I did find myself embracing this work at a deeper level as I journeyed through the months. I chose my words in that last sentence carefully. It’s not that I ‘liked’ the book more as I read on; it’s more like a sense of self-reflection began to occur as the days and various thoughts were contemplated.

Worry/Anxiety:

When God is my only concern, when God is the center of my interest, when all my prayers, my reading, my studying, my speaking, and writing serve only to know God better and to make him known better, then there is no basis for anxiety or stage fright.

Beauty/Loneliness:

On this earth the experience of great beauty always remains mysteriously linked with the experience of great loneliness.

There is nothing more important to your health – and, ultimately, your life – than what you believe to be true.

The full title of this book is “Elite Minds – How Winners Think Differently to Create a Competitive Edge and Maximize Success”. That full title, along with a recommendation from a friend, is what brought this book into my reading queue. However, I was quite skeptical that this would be yet another rehash of the same content floating in the self-help success genre for the past 20 years. I was pleasantly surprised. Continue reading “Quotes from “Elite Minds” by Dr. Stan Beecham”

How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious?

– C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

I fear I have become and continue in becoming the object of whom this question is posed. I acknowledge this to be the essence of my depravity. It’s not that I think so highly of myself directly. I do, however, hold every thing, every effort, every attempt, every one up to the standard by which I measure expectations of myself. This continual comparison brings focus to the difference between each where I falsely assume my own approach to be the better of the two. So, while I may not hold myself in high esteem, I continually find that I am looking down on others.

This is not a conscious decision, which is all the more frightful in that it has become a part of who I am. I wish it were not so. I ask forgiveness. I work to be better. I achieve a moment of empathy where I truly see something for what it is, beautiful and glorious. I sense this to be a hint of humility. I am pleased with this growth in my nature – I take pride in my humility, now one step further from where I so desire to be.

God forgive me. Aid me in the transformation I so believe you have begun in me that I resist with such unintended veracity.